Geodiversity of the Yosemite National Park, USA: geoheritage analysis and geoscience communication

• Grant number: 22/00814-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Master's degree
• Start date: October 01, 2022
• End date: March 31, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Geosciences - Geology
• Principal Investigator: Maria da Glória Motta Garcia
• Grantee: Karina de Souza Ibanez
• Supervisor: Greg Stock
• Host Institution: Instituto de Geociências (IGC). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Yosemite National Park - National Park Service, United States
• Associated to the scholarship: 20/16730-1 - Tectonic geoheritage in the central Ribeira Belt: analysis of boudins as records of the regional evolution, north coast of São Paulo, BP.MS

Abstract

The Yosemite National Park is a United States national park situated within the western Sierra Nevada Batholith, in Central California. The National Park Service (NPS) is the agency of the United States federal government that manages all national parks of the country. It's a leading institution in the preservation and understanding of the natural resources in the United States, giving attention to both natural diversity in their national parks: biodiversity and geodiversity - and is also dedicated to promoting and protecting America's geoheritage. Scientific research, monitoring, resource inventory and management are key aspects of the actions they promote in the national parks - based on the premise that inventories help understand the range of natural resources in and around parks and monitoring helps understand how these resources are doing over the long term. Unlike what generally happens in the national parks of Brazil, geologists are present in the development of these actions. This internship aims to study and produce content for the promotion of the geodiversity of the Yosemite National Park, including the use of geospatial products, as well as developing experience in geoscientific work in a national park of great relevance. The main goal of this project is to work in the scope of the geodiversity, geoheritage and geoconservation in the Yosemite National Park, focusing in these aspects: i) study of the geology and geodiversity context of the Yosemite National Park and analysis of the methodologies used in the park for the diagnosis and the promotion of geoheritage, on the basis of geoconservation strategies; ii) monitoring the two main geological activities of the park - rockfall and glaciers activity - using geospatial technologies (such as remote sensing and photogrammetry) and analysis of the preexisting data; (iii) characterization of Geoheritage Sites in Yosemite; (iv) contribution to the elaboration of geoscience communication contents. The development of this research internship will provide important knowledge about the methodologies employed in the scope of geodiversity in a relevant United States national park and will contribute substantially to the main project in Brazil. The use of geospatial technologies in geoscientific research and geocommunication proves to be increasingly useful and necessary nowadays. The results obtained in this internship will allow us to produce a comparison of the methods and uses of the geospatial products and geocommunication and geoheritage valorization tools and applied in Yosemite and the research project in Brazil. Contributing to these studies in Yosemite National Park is a unique opportunity to understand how geological research and management work at a leading institution in bringing scientific research, geoconservation and geotourism together. (AU)